National Security Agency director Keith Alexander said on Sunday that whistleblower Edward Snowden betrayed the trust of Americans and defended the broad surveillance programs as necessary to prevent another terrorist attack.

As Snowden evaded an attempt on Sunday by Washington to have him arrested in Hong Kong, General Alexander told ABC's This Week: "This is an individual who is not acting, in my opinion, with noble intent ... What Snowden has revealed has caused irreversible and significant damage to our country and to our allies."

Alexander said the NSA surveillance programs Snowden had disclosed to the Guardian were tightly overseen and disputed statements from members of the Senate intelligence committee that they had not played a unique role in preventing terrorist attacks.

A 29 year old drop out who worked for a private NSA contractor has been able to damage America’s security in an irreversible manner. How many others of the tens of thousands of NSA and private NSA contract employees are in a similar position to do damage. Perhaps we should rethink the whole intelligence structure in America.

Better yet how many of those contractors are Chinese nationals anyway?

I’d also like to know why no attention is being given to the fact that James Clapper was an executive with Booz Allen (the company that Snowden worked for)? I wonder what Clapper’s stock looked like when the company won that $6 billion contract.

18
posted on 06/23/2013 1:25:48 PM PDT
by cripplecreek
(REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)

The State Department are going out of their way to bring Muslims into America, expose the borders as folly, and leave the VISA system open for abuse. So, Mr. Keith Alexander, WTF are you talking about?

19
posted on 06/23/2013 1:26:02 PM PDT
by By and By
(Dime Store New Dealers are Milquetoast and Liberal)

The Obama administration leaks classified information continuously. They do it to glorify the President, or manipulate public opinion, or even to help produce a pre-election propaganda film about the Osama bin Laden raid. The Obama administration does not hate unauthorized leaks of classified information. They are more responsible for such leaks than anyone.

What they hate are leaks that embarrass them or expose their wrongdoing. Those are the only kinds of leaks that are prosecuted. The "enemy" they're seeking to keep ignorant with selective and excessive leak prosecutions are not The Terrorists or The Chinese Communists. It's the American people.

The Terrorists already knew, and have long known, that the US government is doing everything possible to surveil their telephonic and internet communications. The Chinese have long known, and have repeatedly said, that the US is hacking into both their governmental and civilian systems (just as the Chinese are doing to the US). The Russians have long known that the US and UK try to intercept the conversations of their leaders just as the Russians do to the US and the UK.

They haven't learned anything from these disclosures that they didn't already well know. The people who have learned things they didn't already know are American citizens who have no connection to terrorism or foreign intelligence, as well as hundreds of millions of citizens around the world about whom the same is true. What they have learned is that the vast bulk of this surveillance apparatus is directed not at the Chinese or Russian governments or the Terrorists, but at them.

“National Security Agency director Keith Alexander said on Sunday that whistleblower Edward Snowden betrayed the trust of Americans and defended the broad surveillance programs as necessary to prevent another terrorist attack.”

I agree with General Alexander that the information to which Mr. Snowden was privy may have been of the type that might have prevented a large scale terrorist attack, but I don't have enough information to tell. What I CAN tell is that the current administration and, to some extent, previous ones have been conducting surveillance on United States citizens that clearly is contrary to the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. For this revelation, I am indebted to Edward Snowden.

I wish to be FREE, and I understand that will have to be responsible, informed, and ready to defend myself and my country. Freedom is a risk I choose to accept. I am grateful for the opportunity; it was bought at great price.

No, whats disgusting is people like you that cried and cried on FR for someone on the inside to expose the BS in the admin, then when someone did, turned on a dime screaming TRAITOR! and thus ensuring no one will ever do it again.

And idiots wonder why conservatives cant be trusted to stand for squat anymore.

Actually it is Obama who has caused irreversible damage to the US..NOT Snowden, all Snowden did was tell us the TRUTH, something Obama and his cronies are incapable of doing..oh and I guess those Boston Bombers were using Sprint otherwise we would have known about their little plan

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